A Foundation of Training Building for New Heights in Your Collections

1. A Foundation of TrainingBuilding for New Heights in Your Collections Randy Kamm The CBE Group, Inc.

2. Session Description:A Foundation of Training This session provides examples of how a third party collection firm hires, trains and motivates its collectors and management team to maximize collections, maintain compliance, enhance customer satisfaction, minimize complaints and reduce turnover. With training resources more limited than ever in the government revenue agency environment, it’s increasingly difficult to operate and maintain an effective, motivated and productive collection team. Use these ideas to help organize, build and sustain a training and development environment that will help you reach new heights in collection – even in these challenging budgetary times.

3. Good to Great “When asked for the top five factors that led from mediocrity to excellence one leader summed it up: One would be people, two would be people, three would be people, four would be people and five would be people.” Jim Collins,Good to Great

4. Turn the flywheel! “Good to great comes about by a cumulative process – step by step, action by action, decision by decision, turn by turn of the flywheel – that adds up to sustained and spectacular results.” Jim Collins,Good to Great

5. Row, row your boat! “If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.” Patrick Lencioni,The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

6. Collections is…One Heart, One Mind…One Payment at a Time! Anonymous

7. “Success Factors” for hiring, developing and motivating collectors Building for new heights in your Collections Know what you want to build Choose people who fit Provide solid footing with effective training Build strong leaders to offer support Maintain, repair, enhance continuously

8. Know what you want to build We want to achieve exceptional results in every aspect of our operation and service Constantly stronger collections Excellent customer service Superior compliance Zero complaints Much enhanced employee retention We want every employee to understand how his or her actions help us achieve exceptional results We want every employee to know we want to help them succeed

9. Do your employees know the plan? If your people don’t know what they’re being asked to do, what you do as a manager won’t matter. “Even Alice in Alice in Wonderland, learned that. When she came to a fork in the road, she found the Cheshire Cat sitting there. She asked him, ‘Which road should I take?’ ‘Where are you going?’ asked the cat. ‘I don’t know,’ said Alice. ‘Then it doesn’t matter,’ the cat was quick to reply.” Ken Blanchard,Whale Done

10. At CBE we will… “…offer a life preserver of help and hope to each other, our clients and customers. We will all be committed to doing the right thing!” Being a collector is a tough job Keeping collectors engaged and productive is essential for strong collection performance, superior customer satisfaction and peerless compliance

11. CBE’s Core Values Integrity, Respect, Innovation, and Continuous Improvement Provide a common language for all employees Point to expectations Clarify what is most valuable to the organization Drive our people to “do the right thing” because they receive respect, understanding and support within the CBE organization

12. Do the Right Thing…Every Day! We take care of our people so they’ll want to and are able to do the right thing – on the phone, for our clients, with each other, and in our community We’ll generate exceptional results because we treat consumers with uncommon respect and professionalism We’ll change the perception of debt collection We’ll create a new collection paradigm built on our Core Values

13. Integrity The ripple starts with me! We conduct our business in accordance with the highest standards of professional behavior. We are accountable to live up to our commitments. We are in a climate of open, honest, and ethical behavior in all of our interactions with each other, clients, vendors and the public

14. Respect Every person matters! We always treat others as they would like to be treated. We believe it is vital to capitalize on each individual’s unique talents and honor diverse work styles. We operate in a climate of openness and trust in which each of us freely grants others their entitled respect, cooperation, and decency.

15. Innovation Riding the wave! We accept change as the rule, not the exception, and create an environment in which individuals thrive and creativity is valued. We anticipate change, shape it to fit our purposes, and act as its agent.

16. Continuous Improvement Charting our own course! We embrace a total quality management philosophy and continuous improvement initiatives. We will guide each other through uncharted waters and become the leader in changing the collection industry. We are not afraid to stand alone if it is the right thing to do.

17. Choose People who Fit Your Organization & Values Right Bus Right Seat Right Fit

18. Stay focused on the goal Recruiting, training and motivating people is comprehensive, incremental and coordinated Identify people’s strengths and develop support departments Encourage teambuilding, collaboration and cooperation in all parts and all levels of your organization Constantly focus on communication and employee engagement Identify and resolve conflicts along the way Seek continuous, incremental improvements

19. Hire for Talent, Train for Skill Past experience isn’t everything Tough to change heart and attitude Do all you can to ensure the right fit Prescreen First Interview Second Interview Reference Check Background Check

20. Selecting Talent Talent outperforms your expectations Talent outperforms experience Need for each manager to understand his or her own talents and non-talents as a filter (prism) on the world Talent is just like a fingerprint – Unique!

21. Use a Strengths-based approach Identify, appreciate and capitalize on each employee’s unique strengths Set the goal and recognize people will get there differently Individuals don’t need to be well-rounded but teams do

22. Now, Discover Your Strengths Each employee knows his or her unique strengths and strength zone Every person in the company knows everyone else’s strengths too! My strengths are: Relator Adaptability Strategic Futuristic Arranger Tom Rath,Strengths Finder 2.0

23. Most common strengths for all CBE Employees Achiever Responsibility Strategic Adaptability Relator Most common strengths for Collectors Achiever Strategic Responsibility Adaptability Empathy Now, Discover Your Strengths Tom Rath,Strengths Finder 2.0

24. Provide solid footing for Effective Training Time spent training up front reduces time to “rebuild” later Hire the best trainers you can and reward them Provide ongoing support for your new hires as well as veteran collectors Invest time, energy and money necessary to document and maintain your SOP system Refuse the temptation to rush to the phone!

25. Lay the groundwork Provide clear authority and responsibility for training, teambuilding & leadership development Create organizational development department that fosters: Training at all levels of organization Enhancement of corporate culture and core values Resource and target your training efforts Expanded staff dedicated to training from 1 to 8.5 employees Tear down “training” silos and build cross functional teams that share the passion for training and development

26. Tear Down Silos – Create Cross Functional Teams Collector Development

27. Hit the mark for each employee Engaged or Sweet Spot 21% “Show me the Money!” Not Engaged or Neutral 63% “The Improvement Zone!” Actively Disengaged or Bitter 16% “…Retired On Active Duty”

28. Engagement Seek out and engage employees who freely and willingly offer discretionary effort Collectors who “Go the extra mile” to help debtors find lasting payment solutions drive performance: Stronger revenue growth Lower costs Reduced turnover and absenteeism Increased creativity and innovation Positive culture Extraordinary performance results for clients

29. Key Elements of Engagement Understand employees’ different “learning styles” and how to engage their differences Emotional I care about the future of my organization I’m proud to work for this organization My organization inspires me Rational I understand how my department contributes to organizational success I see how my role impacts the organization I am willing to put in extra effort for organizational success

30. Training Modules New Hire Classroom Instruction:(Three weeks) Orientation and company history, FDCPA, State laws, Privacy Act and all other regulatory requirements, client specific requirements, collection system instruction, listening and collector talk off strategies and techniques Teambuilding exercises Rigorous testing New Collector Training Bay: (Eight weeks) Matched with experienced collectors & managers to build confidence and experience

31. Training Modules One-on-one Instruction: (New and experienced employees) Role play, live borrower calls, review recordings of contacts as well as providing direction for improvement. Allows collectors to “hear themselves” as well as learn from others Monthly Training:(By business unit) Changes in regulatory requirements, laws and new customer requirements FDCPA, Privacy and Security Safeguards: Required twice a year for every employee

32. Training Modules REACH:Real Experimental Adventures for Change and Hope(Supervisory & Management Team) Week-long off-site, provides cooperative problem-solving, strategic thinking, conflict resolution, relationship-building, personal risk-taking, trust enhancement, understanding & appreciation of individual strengths. Improves communication, reduces conflict & helps team focus on collecting and resolving accounts CBE University:(Offered to all employees) Enhances general and leadership skills. Testing & Certification Roster: All employees sign training and testing certification

33. Build strong leaders to offer support Why develop the leadership team? Great leaders discover what’s unique about each employee and they capitalize on it Successful managers figure out how to incorporate people’s differences into the overall plan Leaders build trusting relationships between other management team members that foster success People join companies, but they quit managers

34. Manager Selection Choose manager candidates who want to develop people Seek those with “Servant Leadership” experiences Best collectors don’t always make great managers Frequent past behavior indicates future behavior

35. Maintain, Repair, Enhance Continuously Communicate your expectations and requirements Inspect what you expect Review, Remind, Reinforce Look for ways to make your concepts “sticky” Coaching Stories Activities

36. Success is in the Details Daily training opportunities One-on-one coaching (supervisor/trainer) QA monitoring Compliance Chat Comprehensive SOPs accessible to all personnel

37. Daily Training Opportunities Create a “learning and teaching” environment where training opportunities & successes abound every day “Hot Topic” Compliance training focused on collectors doing the right thing on every collection call. “Core Competencies” Training focused on the skills necessary to be successful in a collection position. Reinforce Client Specific requirements Reward positives as well as focus on improvement areas

38. Quality Assurance Monitoring 100% call recording supports QA monitoring Cross functional teams jointly evaluate & score calls Operations Compliance Organizational Development Seven calls from every collector at CBE each month Scoring Best Practices Areas of Opportunity Compliance trends inform and enhance future training Close cooperation between Ops/Compliance/OD

39. Compliance Chat Online Q&A “chat” resource Employees prefer communicating via “Chat” Compliance team available via online chat function to respond to questions Opportunity to continuously teach the “why” and “how” behind procedures and requirements Reinforces use of SOPs to ensure accuracy and compliance

40. Proof’s in the Pudding

41. IRS Private Debt Collection Program $82.5 million collected in 30 months 27% or 53,991 of accounts resolved (out of nearly 200,000 accounts placed) Independent “taxpayer satisfaction” survey scores 99% (Regulatory, procedural and customer accuracy) 99.4% (Timeliness of collection actions) 99.9% (Professionalism) Less than one-half percent asked to be returned to IRS Virtually no cases identified as validated complaints (six accounts) Comparable IRS scores ranked in 60% range

42. Presentation Summary “Success Factors” for training, motivating and developing employees Know what you want to build Choose people who fit Provide solid footing with effective training Build strong leaders to offer support Maintain, repair, enhance continuously

44. The CBE Group, Inc. The CBE Group is a privately held, 76-year old debt collection firm driven to do the right thing for our customers, consumers, employees and community. CBE is headquartered in Waterloo, IA with additional operational centers in Atlanta, Kansas City, and West Des Moines, IA. More than 1000 employees serve the debt recovery needs of more than 900 clients in the Government, Financial, Healthcare, Education, Telecommunications and Utility industries. Visit us at: www.cbegroup.com

45. A Foundation of TrainingThank You! Randy Kamm, Vice President Government Service The CBE Group, Inc. rakamm@cbegroup.com 319.226.5176